Marshwood tortoiseshell frame spectacles in case
Date
Circa 1920
Description
Spectacles with tortoiseshell frames and flexible arms, spring hinge, and metal nose bridge in bronze metal colour case.
The 1920s was a pivotal decade for eyewear. As fashions changed rapidly during the Roaring 20s, glasses went through changes too. The most significant was the introduction of nose pads in 1921, a quickly adopted invention that made glasses more comfortable and functional than ever before.
For hundreds of years, glasses had kept largely the same design. The arms connected to the frames at the enter edge of the circular or oval frames and ran straight back to the ear. This changed in the 1920s when American Optical patented their “Ful-Vue” design. Instead of having the temples connect at the midpoint of the lens, they connected in the top corner. This lets the wearer look to the sides without an arm piece blocking their view. Now that more and more people were driving, having a full range of vision was important for road safety.
With the arrival of nose pads in 1921, the Marshwood style came into prominence. Before the nose pad, the connector piece between lenses was most often the saddle bridge. This simple curved metal piece did little to keep glasses from falling off, and often had to be combined with temples that curved completely around the ears.
Nose pads now meant glasses could sit further away from the face and offer adjustability for a more comfortable fit. The temple pieces kept a prominent curve for most of the remainder of the decade, but they began to diminish to the arm styles in modern glasses.
The Marshwood style in particular used gold or silver hardware. The antique glasses were typically gold filled, meaning they were made by wrapping dozens of thin sheets of gold around each other to reach the desired thickness.
From a collection of glasses formerly worn by Mrs M. Hassett (1891-1983) and her husband. The Glasses were worn from the early 1900s until 1983. They were originally obtained form optometrists in Warrnambool, Geelong, Ballarat and Melbourne, the most noted being Thomas Gaunt & Co. (Melbourne, Australia), late 19th century manufacturer and retailer of jewellery, clocks, watches and decorative items.
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